I’ve decided to dedicate an entire blog post to the art of writing a blog post. Now, before you exit out of this website, hear me out.

As I said in my last post: writing isn’t easy. I’ve been scratching my head for the last two days thinking about what I should write about for my second post, and I realized that my lack of decision should be my topic. As writers we are always thinking: What are people interested in? What do they want to read? I just want to give the people what they want!

This is a common dilemma most writers face. Most of the time we have no idea what to write about, and what we do write about is usually a shot in the dark. So, the next time you are struggling to come up with ideas, try some of these practices that have worked for me:

1. Read: Literally gorge yourself with text. Spend your day reading as much as you can with whatever you can get your hands on. Take time to read news articles, op-eds, opinion pieces, books, articles, and blogs. The more you read, the more you’ll learn, and the more you learn, the more you will realize that you have an opinion on just about everything. You’ll become inspired, and the words will flow naturally.

I read a lot. I spend my entire day (when I am not diligently working, of course) reading as much as I can. I read articles on women’s issues ( a particular favorite topic of mine), local, national, and global news, and more. I spend my evenings pouring over Jane Austen novels, diving into the mind of Edgar Allan Poe, and even drive home listening to audiobooks. By the end of my day, you would think that I am sick of reading, but hey, I have plenty of ideas I can’t wait to put down on paper.

2. Keep a notebook: If you’re anything like me, you have a notebook for just about everything. A notebook for recipes, a notebook for daily thoughts, a notebook for anxious thoughts, a notebook filled with favorite literary quotes, a notebook filled with sporadic anecdotes about my life, and so on. So, why not add to your myriad of stationary with a notebook filled with blog ideas?

Get a notebook and write down everything and anything you can think of. If you don’t enjoy manually writing things down, type it into your phone. There’s an app for that. Even if it’s a few words, you’ll be glad you got it down, and could probably make sense of it later.

3. Talk to other bloggers/writers: Seriously. It helps. Not only do you feel better when you have someone to complain about writing with, but you can also help each other come up with ideas. Heck, that’s how I got the idea to come up with this blog post.

Writers need each other. I don’t play into the whole “all writers are constantly competing with one another” bit. Not my thing. We all have our own style, and we all have our own goals to worry about. I couldn’t care less if you are further than me in completing your first book. Good for you. Do you have any tips? Working off of one another is one of the best things writers can do.

4. Be a social media guru:Don’t let the title scare you, it’s really not that hard. If you want to come up with blog ideas, you should always, always, always check social media: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and keep up on the latest trends. Follow what’s trending and use those trends to your advantage. You will find that plenty of ideas will stem up from what you see on there.

5. Go with your gut:I’ll paint the picture for you: You’re walking down the street holding a snow cone, and all of a sudden you think, “I want to write about unicorns and how they really do exist!” You then stop yourself and think that writing about unicorns is the wackiest, most outrageous thing you could ever do. You tell yourself that readers are going to think that you are out of your mind, and perhaps unfollow you after they read your infamous unicorn post.

Stop that right now. No matter what the idea is, go with it. You will find that sometimes even the wackiest ideas can help shed light on other issues and be connected with the world around you.

Side note: I tried to come up with a way to make unicorns relative for five minutes. If any of you came up with something, please share in the comments below.

I hope these tips are useful, and, if fellow bloggers have any other ideas, please share! I’d love to add it to my list!